Craig Munro - Bones of the Past - Fantasy Novel

Recently, I visited my local comic shop to restock some copies of 'Son of God' on the shelves. while picking up a new set of D&D dice, I got to talk with the owner who suggested that I check out a fantasy novel by his friend Craig Munro called 'Bones of the Past'. I told him I would look into it and might post about it if it looked promising.

Now, I should start by saying that I don't read. I say that only because people don't seem to count articles and comic books as 'real' reading. For me, the idea of reading a fantasy novel, as engaging as it is, will always pale in comparison to playing a video game in the same setting. So with 'The Hobbit' and 'Lord of the Rings' books as my only fantasy experience, I dove into the short sample of 'The Bones of the Past' posted on the Inkshares site.

Reading through the short prologue, I was very wary. The book seemed to have the same barrier of entry that tends to keep me from diving into fantasy settings. Foreign sounding names, places, and events seemed to fly at me all at once leaving me confused and unattached. Still, this part was relatively short so I pressed onto the first chapter posted.

Immediately the story became much more digestible. I only planned on reading the first few paragraphs, but was caught up in the world. From the get-go, I could see the characters and setting starting to get fleshed out at a good pace. With a good build up, I could tell that the first chapter was leading to something juicy.

Without spoiling too much here, the first chapter does exactly what it needed to. The world introduced was interesting and the action led to a satisfying crescendo. The chapter was self contained, but acted as a starting point to something larger and important. In short, I was invested.

For those interested, 'Bones of the Past' is currently up for preorder on the Inkshares website. Right now, there is a contest being run by Sword and Laser that will help publish the top three most pre-ordered books. Currently, 'Bones of the Past' is sitting in third place, but has only recently just won that spot back. The book definitely seems promising, and I always love seeing people pursuing their dreams on these crowd-funders. If you want to check out the book and support it, you can click here to read the first two chapters.